After 22 years at Cooper tire, I walked out the door for the last time today. It was a very bittersweet decision ,many months in the making. We have had some land in Northern Michigan for a couple years, and planned on retiring there in 8-9 years. Unfortunately a potential buyout by a Indian company,the Market and Corporate decisions concerning our particular plant (and most U.S. plants) have cast doubt that any of these will survive that long. So Looong story short when they pushed me out of my current job into a job that was taking my pay lower than it was in early '92 we made the decision, it was time.. None of this was in our master plan and I'm sure there will be some huge bumps in the road, but I took a lump buyout and as soon as Cooper releases it ,I'm loading up the Dodge and heading North for the winter with a camper,a quad, (snowmobile too ) and start clearing a build site! I'm stoked!!

That's to bad but hopefully you'll look back and it'll be the best thing that happened to you. I work for a tire company too....none of them are ever happy with just making a good living and keeping people employed. It's all about cutting people back and gaining more of the market then anyone else has so you can drive the other guy out of buisness. The way of the corporate world as we know it nowdays. Sad!

It's a different life style that's for sure. Just give your self time to adjust and don't let it get you down. Like for me moving from Los Angeles, California to New Meadows, Idaho was a huge step. Now today I couldn't imagine moving to California or even Boise, Idaho to live. Just way beyond me.

When one door closes another opens. Good luck with the new home and country living.

So based on your description I think you are about to become a Upper (youper).I have a son that lives in the UP and they describe it as living where people like to vacation.Good luck with the new venture.

Good luck. stepping out of the comfort zone can be nuts. I've done it before... and I am in the process of it again. Sofar, it's always paid off for me. I am somewhat jealous of the rural lifestyle that you and Mike have gone after. However, it isn't one that I can follow for quite some time.

So based on your description I think you are about to become a Upper (youper). I have a son that lives in the UP and they describe it as living where people like to vacation. Good luck with the new venture.

Not quite in the upper, so no yooper- I tried ,but the wife wouldn't move that far from the Grandbabies . West of Gaylord a bit, surrounded by National forest, only places near are a couple seasonal vacation/hunting cabins down the road. Hoping to be able to buy the property next to us also, to keep it that way. Beautiful country and with a Snowmobile/Atv trail nearby ,I won't need to trailer anymore..This was when we started clearing this summer

Hey wait what am I drooling about I live in the woods. :doh:Somewhere along that line you should consider power options.

I see you'll have plenty of firewood for heating all winter long.

That's something I've been giving alot of thought too,watched your video several times, trying to skim some knowledge from it! Obviously a generator will supply my needs at first, but then some form of solar generation will be the first long term power source. There is power out at the road, but we want to be as "off grid" as is possible, and installing conventional electric service is way down on my list of to-do things, if for no other reason than it becomes a recurring bill.. Mike, are the 6V batteries in your power storage golf cart type batteries ,or simple Deep Cycle? I don't know about cart batteries , but I know marine style deep cycle batteries , definitely have a "cycle life" if that's the right terminology..

Here is the battery I'm using. http://www.trojanbatteryre.com/PDF/datasheets/L16REB_TrojanRE_Data_Sheets.pdf Typically you get about 12-15 years from a set of batteries as long as they are maintained properly and and not discharged too deeply. I still have a re-occurring power bill but its trimmed way down during the summer to like $30-$40 bucks tops winter time it does go up to about $100-$130 tops. Power outages around here are very common place in the storm seasons and outages might last for days sometimes longest I've seen is 14 days without power. I opted for the wet cells because I can maintain the electrolyte much better and equalize charge the batteries monthly to keep the sulphation down to minimum. As for AGM or gel cells you end up paying more for a battery but typically the life span is much shorter because both batteries are sealed and do vent moisture over time and then fail once the cells dries out.

Thanks for the info!

After 22 years at Cooper tire, I walked out the door for the last time today. It was a very bittersweet decision ,many months in the making. We have had some land in Northern Michigan for a couple years, and planned on retiring there in 8-9 years. Unfortunately a potential buyout by a Indian company,the Market and Corporate decisions concerning our particular plant (and most U.S. plants) have cast doubt that any of these will survive that long. So Looong story short when they pushed me out of my current job into a job that was taking my pay lower than it was in early '92 we made the decision, it was time..

None of this was in our master plan and I'm sure there will be some huge bumps in the road, but I took a lump buyout and as soon as Cooper releases it ,I'm loading up the Dodge and heading North for the winter with a camper,a quad, (snowmobile too ) and start clearing a build site! I'm stoked!!

I wish you the best there and hope it goes well. I know of way too many instances of company buyouts of employee retirement pension and company stock accounts only for every last cent to get tied up in court cases and lost forever. My wife has an uncle that went through this at a huge equipment dealer in AZ, he retired just as corporate "X" bought out a huge dealership chain he worked as a diesel tech for over 20 years and then took over the retirement accts and in the end he got pennies on the dollar and wound up working past his retirement and is still working in his upper 70's due to it.

Corporate "X" would have paid all retirees 50% but the Union decided to fight it until they burned up almost all of the assets in the acct resulting in a payout of what was remaining of the 50% the company released after court costs fighting for a couple years and not winning.

Just another reason putting too many eggs in one basket are a bad idea, he got hit double whammy with company pension and company stock.

Another reason company pensions are quickly becoming a thing of the past in todays world of economics.

I wish you the best there and hope it goes well. I know of way too many instances of company buyouts of employee retirement pension and company stock accounts only for every last cent to get tied up in court cases and lost forever. My wife has an uncle that went through this at a huge equipment dealer in AZ, he retired just as corporate "X" bought out a huge dealership chain he worked as a diesel tech for over 20 years and then took over the retirement accts and in the end he got pennies on the dollar and wound up working past his retirement and is still working in his upper 70's due to it. Corporate "X" would have paid all retirees 50% but the Union decided to fight it until they burned up almost all of the assets in the acct resulting in a payout of what was remaining of the 50% the company released after court costs fighting for a couple years and not winning. Just another reason putting too many eggs in one basket are a bad idea, he got hit double whammy with company pension and company stock. Another reason company pensions are quickly becoming a thing of the past in todays world of economics.

The move North was already in the works but, the plan was 6-8 yrs down the road. Unfortunately That exact scenario you describe was the incentive to walk away now. Because of my age/yrs of service, I only have 15 months left to take a lump buyout, and if the Buyout/merger goes thru as scheduled it will be in the lst part of Nov. ,first of Dec. after that all bets are off. Add to that the financial reports that are surfacing, showing our U.S pension funds are about 4-500 million UNDERFUNDED (U.K. funds are even worse) and the chance of this whole program collapsing , was just to much to risk. Some times it's better to push away from the table while you still have something, even if there's potential for more. I don't need to be rich , I'll be glad to have my own piece of dirt, off the beaten path, away from the madness this labor/management battle has become. I've Always kept my CDL current, and still pretty decent with a wrench, so I'll take some time off and get things started and then get back to work somewhere..

Work. As for jobs and making a bit of money as long as you keep your mind open to almost anything you can always find a small job for extra cash. Like tonight I got a Fire Dept meeting and I'm going to talk to my Fire Chief about bringing his 06 Dodge down so I can change the clutch in his truck. In the past I use to help a friend bone out wild game and make money doing that. I've been as low as dish pit in a local restaurant to manager of a motel. Done all this right here in Idaho. What's amazing about this is all these jobs I've never done before but if you open minded and willing to learn why not?

Upper Michigan is beautiful, been up there a few times over the years for work. You have to like winters though! Congrats on the retirement and getting out of Dodge, er, Ohio while you still can. A real shame what this state has come too in the last 10 years. I got real fortunate in getting into welding right out of high school, stuck with it and put my nose to the grind for 13 years and it has paid off in more ways than I could have ever imagined. Living on the Great Lakes is a definite bonus also. If it wasn't for this specific location and landing a job that pays better than most college degrees (including my wifes 4 yr RN degree), we would have been gone a long time ago. There just isn't too many options in the area anymore if you don't own a 500+ acre farm. It sounds like you know what your getting into and it's great you have the ability to stay ahead of the curve. Best of luck to you! Sent from my DROID4 using Tapatalk

best of luck to ya